Lower Empire

[Intro: Garrett Russell]
Bind the wrist, cut the tongue, call it Liberation
Bind the wrist, cut the tongue, call it Liberation [1]
Invader, you dare make me a stranger
Invader, you brand me as a traitor [2]

[Verse 1: Garrett Russell]
These borders were forged in loss
Painted with a martyr's forgotten blood [3]
Legions of stone infecting the land
Legions we carved into the palm of God's hand [4]
Stigmata cities stitched together with walls intent
On sanitizing the sedition of our dark traditions
We begin with the purest of intentions
Then fabricate the cruelest inventions

[Interlude: Garrett Russell]
Interpret the subtext: "S - O - S"
Euthanized with euphemistic lies, populace of blank binary minds [5]
Appetite for endless apathy, breathing in, in, insecurity [6]

[Verse 2: Garrett Russell]
Until you see your reflection through the scope of a weapon
Nothing will ever change
A revolution stirs in the silence
The movement defies this negative space [7]

[Chorus: Garrett Russell & Thomas Freckleton]
I hear you through the noise
The truth that speaks in silence [8], scale the divides we devise
We locked out the world, but we're locked inside
I hear you through the noise
The hope [9] sung from the margins [10], my heartbeat just a step behind
I didn't know your name, but I knew we were out of time

[Verse 3: Garrett Russell]
Nuclear families split apart like the atom [11]
Demagogues [12] proliferate the calloused grip of the state
The future asphyxiates under nativist suspicions
Insipid minds domestic fission

[Interlude: Garrett Russell]
Bind the wrist, cut the tongue, call it Liberation
Bind the wrist, cut the tongue, call it Liberation

[Verse 4: Garrett Russell]
Thirteen, cold as a stillborn - wounds still warm in his chest [13]
Behold the crimson lens, peer through the gaps in the flesh
Bullets raining from Babylon: [14] the price of wealth
How can you resist this cycle if you can't resist yourself? [15]

[Bridge: Garrett Russell]
What a world we knew
Before we fearfully withdrew
To our silent cells of solitude
But still, I hear you, I hear you

[Chorus: Garrett Russell & Thomas Freckleton]
I hear you through the noise
The truth that speaks in silence, scale the divides we devise
We locked out the world, but we're locked inside
I hear you through the noise
The hope sung from the margins, my heartbeat just a step behind
I didn't know your name but I knew we were out of time